Analytical and Methodological Dilemmas of the Construction of Images:Perceptions of Power and Democracy

How should we study and conceptualize political identity and behaviour in post modern society? How do people understand and experience power, and from where do people acquire the elements that impact the formation of the individuals "cognitive map" or political image of society? How do individuals perceive their own role in current democracy? With interview data derived from a case study analysis is presented and unfolded here. The basic approach is phenomenological-hermeneutical, but it is analytically informed by discourse analysis. The chapter advocates a constructivist bottom up approach as a method of the study of perceptions. It is suggested that individual perception of power and mass mediated politics is related to personal ‘first hand' experience, and that social distance and scepticism co-exist with political engagement and knowledge